Al Beqqa Refugee camp.

Hello,

Today I returned back to al Beqqa refugee camp to help teach English to the children. Another girl from SIT, Bridget also came.

Today we worked on teaching pronouns to the children.
Ex- This is...
       He is....
       They are....
       We are...

This was challenging as there is no "is" or "are" really in Arabic. That seemed to trick the children more than I anticipated. By the end though, I think they got it.

For the rest of my blog post, I think I will discuss it in picture form.

When I entered the class today I sat down at the table to prepare things. An elderly woman came in, started shaking all the teachers hands and kissing us on the cheek. I was not surprised by this. Parents of the children often come to thank us and show their appreciation. The woman was giving blessings to everyone, but when she came to me, she stuck out her hand and asked me for money and stopped with the blessings. This was akward. Of course, I would be the unblessed one! I told her that I did not have money on me. I thought that if I gave her a dinar, there were hundreds of other people that also needed the dinar. As a result, I might have everyone asking me for money. Also, I am volunteering to help out. I would like to think that that is a decent contribution. She was kind of pissed and left. Turns out she was not related to any of the children. She just wandered into the school. Sad.

When I packed up my bags to go to Jordan this winter, I spent a lot of time picking out gifts for my host family. I did not know anything about who they were or ages of their children so I bought things for a wide range of ages. I gave my host family two Gettysburg glasses, Burger cookies, Uno and Apples to Apples. I figured this was appropriate. However, I hung on to the play dough, glow sticks and Crayola products because my host siblings would be too old to appreciate them.

Today I brought the play dough, glow sticks and Crayola things to the camp with me after asking the coordinator, Lisa, if it would be okay. She said of course and that the children would love it. I just wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be problems or hurt feelings. Its just always better to ask. Sometimes you think you are doing a good thing and wind up doing the opposite. Below are pictures of the playing with the toys.

A group of boys really liked playing with the play dough. They kept setting up scenes with the glow sticks and such and asking me to take pictures. They had such pride in their creations. Here is a picture of Animals. They also took my art piece, with my name written in Arabic for the background. This was not my idea as I wanted them to draw something else, but the boys wanted this. 

I brought a crayola set that you add water to the pens and they only draw on a certain type of paper. The colors are metallically and really shiny. A girl named Lobna really liked drawing on this paper. So did one of the grown Palestinian Men. I think he was more fascinated by it then the children. 

The kids at their creations

At first the kids did not seem to understand the concept of play dough. I jumped in and helped one boy make a falafel sandwich. After that they were making their own creations. 

Making purple pizza

More animals and glow sticks

Lubna drawing a house

Lisa got a computer game from the US Embassy that helps people to learn English. The language was a bit advanced for the children, but they liked working on the computer. They really worked hard with this game.

A group of boys always draws Palestine on the arm of the white plastic couch. Today I reprimanded them for drawing on the sofa, but they did not really seem to care. I want to use these drawings to illustrate a point. In the Middle East you hear songs and people always talking about the watun وطن or homeland. This is not really a concept that we as Americans have. Yes, America is our country and home, but it is not our وطن. For most Americans, our ethnic roots are not in America but in Europe or other countries. In the Middle East, people very much want to live in the land of their ancestors or where their roots are. There boys are ten years old and they do not live in Palestine and most likely have not been there to visit, mostly because Israel denies Palestinians visas to revisit their homeland. Their parents grew up in Jordan as well. Yet, these boys have a strong patriotic feeling towards Palestine, which is their homeland and rightful land. It's really sad. Their home is where their ethnic roots are. This is also reflected in the conditions of Al Beqqa refugee camp. The streets are filled with trash and it is frankly a disaster. Children cannot play outside because it is flithy. When I come home after teaching, I always have to resist taking a shower and just wait. I feel that dirty, but I don't want to show people how dirty I feel the camp is because I am worried I will offend. People do not have pride in the camp or their housing because they do not consider it home. This is a camp, not Palestine. Also, they are so so poor. Today in class I asked my class to write down expensive items  (we were learning Cheap and Expensive in English). They wrote food, like falafel. Falafel costs me less than a dollar. Most of these children do not eat breakfast and eat very little. It's sad. 

If the story of little boys pinning away for their homeland does not move you to want to solve the Palestinian- Israeli conflict, I don't think you have a heart. It's really sad. Surely there is a way that everyone in this situation can get a little more than they have now. I can guarantee you if the conflict was resolved and right of return was guaranteed for the Palestinian Refugees (WHICH IS A HUMAN RIGHT!) that boys such as the ones in my class would return to Palestine, even though they have never lived there. They just want to live in the land of their people (Despite what politician Newt Gingrich said, Palestine does have ethnic people). Plus frankly, things most likely can't get much worse. 

I also talked to a young woman today who showed up for class. She was about nineteen years old and wanted help with her English. She is preparing for the national exam and wants to get her English down well. She is very good at English and was a pleasure to work with. However, she told me and Bridget some unhappy things. First, she was talking about a friend of hers who has a boyfriend. She really calmly told me that if that girls parents find out, she will be killed. I was amazed at how calmly she said this, it was almost in a manner of fact way. She seems a little rebellious and does not want to wear hijab or speak Arabic. She keeps trying to speak only English in her household. She seems like a person who could have more opportunities if her situation was different. She is bright. I hope she does well on her exams! I also hope she does not tick off her family too much. She seems like a handful. 

Since this was my second time at the school, I asked for more information. The school where I teach at is the Orphan Center of the village. All orphans can come to the center to receive aid. The definition of orphan is different than the United States definition. An orphan in the Middle East is any child who has lost a parent. For instance, if the dad of the family dies but the mother is alive, the child is considered an orphan. This is because the mother can no longer really afford to support her children alone. The Orphan center received aid from private donors. The agency is not incredibly open about who their donors are. Even Lisa does not know. I find this odd, but maybe people would prefer to remain anonymous. I really don't know. The agency hands out heaters in the winter and helps out with people's basic living essentials. The men who run the center are volunteers. They are really nice to me and the students who help. They keep saying thank you and how great it is that we help out. Really nice people. 

I also learned today some interesting things about the students. Sometimes I am confused about why a student is not picking up material as quickly as I expect. I keep trying many different ways, but it does not always work. Turns out some of these kid have some real health issues. Some of them have worms, one might be deaf and another might be illiterate. If I had 1/100 of their issues, I would not be learning as well. For some of these children to be illiterate in Arabic is really sad. Every child should learn how to read so they can learn new things and explore different worlds. 

After class ended, we gathered to sing Happy Birthday to one of the volunteers. The students had made her a present...different things made out of playdough with her name. They spend all break doing this and worked hard. This was so so sweet! I think this is another perfect example of Arab culture. IF you give anything to an Arab person or show appreciation, they will recipricate 100x more than what you gave them. The hospitality and kindness is unreal. The boys gave up their new toy, play dough to make someone else happy. It was touching. 

When I went to leave today, a small boy came up to me. He had his hands closed around something. He opened his hands and showed me a glow stick, one that I had brought. He was really excited by it and could not wait until night to see it glow. He really thanked me alot. This was sweet.

When I got home today, I passed out and took a nap. 

Talk to you later, 

Natalie